


The Demon and the Savior

by FireGriffin



Category: Gravity Falls
Genre: Gen, Short Story, Transcendence AU, because it's a one-chapter story, but I don't have time to finish it right now, probably will be 2 chapters
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-30
Updated: 2018-06-28
Packaged: 2019-05-16 01:16:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 10,315
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14801577
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FireGriffin/pseuds/FireGriffin
Summary: Based off of "what if one of Bill's reincarnations is convinced that they're a reincarnation of Dipper". This is a fanfic about a Gravity Falls AU, so if you haven't heard of transcendence AU, look it up before reading this.





	1. Chapter 1

When the child was born, Dipper felt it in his gut. He felt it the same way he felt a summoning circle.  When he felt it again for the most recent time, he scowled, and made his way quickly to the hospital.

 

The baby looked just like any other. For the past few reincarnations, Bill had had a gimmick of one damaged eye. Maybe this child would get that later. For now? He looked like any other newborn. Bright red, a bit slimy, and barely able to open its eyes. Dipper shuddered as he watched the scene unfold. The parents looked so  _ happy _ . He’d probably get a wonderful childhood, if all went well. He would grow up to be an ordinary person.

 

Dipper never would.

 

He’d never get to reincarnate alongside Mizar. He would always, always be  _ Dipper. _ Never someone else who was born under Alcor’s star. Always buried in more and more memories, and more and more losses. He might have stopped Bill from doing some bad things, but in the end, hadn’t Bill won? Wasn’t Dipper’s life unforgivably altered by this tiny screaming baby, so blissfully unaware of everything in front of him?

 

A part of him, deep down, would always be aware. Dipper remembered all too clearly the time that the real Bill Cipher had emerged from a reincarnation of himself. The infuriating thing was if Dipper hadn’t interfered like he did, it wouldn’t have happened. Dipper’s fault, even now.

 

So he wouldn’t destroy this baby, as much as an equal part of his most human side and most demonic side wanted to. He would simply have to watch.

 

Well, he didn’t really have to watch. He just couldn’t tear his eyes away from the horrified fascination of how much better Bill’s life got to be. Of how unfair the universe was.

 

He was remembered as the hero, and Bill as the villain, but even that story was fading into oblivion nowadays. The stories of Alcor the Demon were much more prevalent. Someday, no one would remember the kid who defeated Bill Cipher, and everyone would remember how to draw a summoning circle for Alcor.

 

But there was no use lamenting it. As much as watching Bill’s reincarnations brought back painful memories, he still had a strong will to live. He had to wonder, sometimes, what he’d do with himself once the Earth was consumed by the sun, and the Milky Way dissolved out of the night sky. Would he even remember Dipper, the little boy who hated demons?

 

Dipper refocused on the baby, directing his frustration at it. It was comforting, in a way, to have someone else to blame for this. The child stopped crying when it looked into its mother’s eyes.

 

Dipper flew away, disgusted. 

 

~

 

The baby grew into a little boy. Dipper visited him less and less frequently, the more he grew confident that this would be a totally average, boring, normal child. Well, as boring and normal as anyone could be, nowadays. No one remembered what it was like before everything became Weird! No one! Not even Mizar!

 

Dipper had thoughts like these frequently. The way he dispelled them was by stargazing. He’d name the stars in the Little Dipper formation, and then in the Big Dipper formation. Because no matter how much everything else changed, the stars never did. It felt almost like he was twelve again, curled up in a sleeping bag beside Mabel, or Ford, or the whole family, using his stargazing handbook as a pillow, and pointing at the constellations he knew the names of.

 

It was on a night like this when Dipper first realized Bill’s latest reincarnation wasn’t boring, normal, or average at all. 

 

He was sitting among the branches of a particularly sturdy tree — one that had been in the forest since before he and Mabel came for the Summer, all those centuries ago — when he heard a strangely familiar voice. 

 

“That’s where Dipper died!” It said.

 

“Nah, how could you know?” Said another child’s voice.

 

“I remember it!”

 

Dipper’s heart skipped a beat, and he drifted higher up to get a view of the two kids tromping through the forest at night.  Who-? BILL CIPHER. It didn’t look like him. It didn’t look like his reincarnation remembered anything, or like he was about to attack or ambush or something…

 

The kid was holding hands with the other kid, and their arms were swinging back and forth in unison as they walked, in a carefree way that reminded him of several of Mizar’s reincarnations. Dipper let the tension in his body relax. Just two kids in the forest, making things up to try and scare each other.

 

“No way,” the boy holding hands with Bill’s reincarnation argued. “That’s dumb, Isaac. I don’t believe in reincarnation!”

 

“How can you not?” Bill’s reincarnation — Isaac — replied. “And anyway, I’m descended from Dipper Pines, so there!”

 

Dipper wasn’t sure what he was feeling. Like he’d slammed into a brick wall? Or frozen solid? Or like he’d eaten a particularly nasty moldy burrito and was about to die from food poisoning? He swallowed, and it took every particle of self control in his body not to tear that little kid to shreds.

 

How. DARE. He. Was he mocking him? Did he know who he was? Was he plotting something again? Questions rushed through his mind, and his hands felt clammy, and his lips pursed so tightly together that he would have bitten through his lips if he’d been human.  

 

He drifted a little closer, and gasoline was poured onto the wound. Isaac was wearing a f***ing BASEBALL CAP. He had dark brown curly hair, and he was noodle-thin. The resemblance stopped there, but still. It was a resemblance. Somewhere out there, inbetween reincarnations, Bill had chosen THIS CHILD to be, as a big F * * * YOU, and if he didn’t stop following them immediately, he was going to end up beating the crap out of these little kids for things that Isaac didn’t even remember doing — for crimes that Isaac didn’t even commit.

 

Dipper realized he had been rapidly approaching them while lost in thought, and stopped abruptly. Get ahold of yourself. He looked up at the stars, took a deep breath, and counted to ten. Mizar. Mizar. Mizar. Bill. Was. Her. Husband. He. Is. Not. Bill. Anymore. He. Is. An. Idiotic. Little. Kid. Please. Don’t. Hurt. A. Child. Alcor. ALCOR. Please. You are better than him. You can’t harm an innocent bystander. Let the children be. Let them be. Just let them be.

 

After an excessively long exhale, Dipper was able to leave them. But he never forgot the image of brown curly-haired base-ball-capped Isaac. And from that moment on, he made a habit of spying on Isaac’s life from time to time.

 

Every moment the child succeeded… every moment he looked, or talked, or rambled like Dipper used to… he couldn’t stand it. He wished desperately to have someone to talk to about it. Someone to tell him how ridiculous he was being. Someone to distract him from this abomination of a child… but who? Mortals were so temporary, he could blow his nose in the amount of time it took someone who’d finally gotten used to him to die of heart disease or of old age. And Mizar’s current reincarnation was nothing like the original he missed so much. He hadn’t bothered to talk to her much.

 

~

 

Years passed. Dipper watched Isaac grow into an 11-year-old boy, and was pleased to find they didn’t look much alike at all anymore. Isaac’s hair was cut so short that you couldn’t tell it was curly, and his baseball cap was red, with a single eye design stitched on the front. He was a little taller than you’d expect an 11-year-old to be, with ridiculously long legs and a comically short torso. “Gangly” was the most accurate word. He had more friends than Dipper had at that age, and they were all just as odd-looking as him. If Dipper looked closely, he could see his old pine tree symbol sewn onto the front corner of Isaac’s jacket, but he preferred not to look so close. He was starting to think Isaac just might be normal again.

 

That is, until he was summoned.

 

Dipper had been goofing off with a couple of Corduroys (they tended to be less intimidated by him, even now when Wendy’s memories were little more than legends) when he’d vanished and re-appeared at the center of a summonings circle.

 

His first thought was that Mizar had summoned him. He didn’t know why, or how, but no one ever summoned him so accurately that he arrived so quickly anymore. 

 

He was at the center of a nice-looking room. It was a basement, but with clean carpeting, a TV, and storage boxes full of toys.  The summoning circle was drawn from string that was taped into place from time to time. A considerate method, considering that there were so many ways of summoning him that could have ruined the carpet.

 

Dipper noticed who had summoned him, and considered setting fire to the floor. “What do you want,” he growled.

 

Isaac held up his hands defensively. He was holding a mysterious looking tome in one hand. “Hey, I just wanted to make a trade. I thought you liked kids!”

 

Dipper let his form grow more demonic. The lights flickered out throughout the house. “Not you.”

 

Isaac’s face fell. “What??”

 

Dipper leaned towards the child with his eyes glowing at full brightness, and wisps of darkness emanating from all around himself. “Leave. Never summon me again.”

 

Isaac grew a look of determination after taking an apprehensive step backwards. “I— I just heard that you’re the patron demon of the Pines family-“

 

“You are no Pines,” Dipper spat.

 

“But… Dipper Pines saved humanity… he’s- he’s my hero! I’m as much of a Pines as-“

 

Dipper hated how much the words still stung. He’d been watching this kid ever since the day he was born, and even now, his idolization of Dipper was the bitterest irony to it that he’d had ever had to bear. This time, the eagerness in Isaac’s voice hit home, reminded him of himself, and made his anger deflate. So he interrupted the kid with a simple question.

“What’s that?”

 

“This?” Isaac wiggled the book in his hand. “That’s what I was hoping to trade for.” TRADE FOR. Dipper couldn’t believe it. Multiple reincarnations, and Bill was still using demonic language. It was still there, just waiting to be slip out at the worst possible moments. Let’s make a DEAL, Alcor! Let’s make a trade! The sheer nerve.

 

Dipper plucked the book from Isaac’s hands, and flipped through it. A history book? No, more than that. Something documenting the weirdness of gravity falls. It had a list of every demon’s summoning circle, warnings about which areas of the town were most susceptible to magic and weirdness, and all sorts of other things. Who wrote it? A reincarnation of Ford, perhaps?

 

He found himself buried in it . For a brief moment, Dipper was a human again, puzzling over mysteries bigger than he could have ever imagined. He FELT human again, despite standing at the center of a summoning circle in a child’s basement. Then he flipped to the later pages.

 

“You’ve written in this,” Dipper remarked.

 

“Yeah…” Isaac fidgeted as he spoke. “Just a couple of things.”

 

“You’ve got a page about reincarnations…”

 

Isaac smiled tentatively. “Reincarnations share similarities with their past selves. Like, I found this book in the woods, and I have a twin sister, and I wanna fight evil, and-“

 

“No, NO. Definitely not.” Dipper glared at him, shoving the book back into his arms. “Forget about it, and leave the Pines family alone.”

 

He never did find out what Isaac wanted to trade for. He left immediately after that, congratulating himself for being so patient with the little monster. Now, all he had to do was never see Isaac again, and he’d be happy.

 

He saw Isaac again.

 

~

 

The second time Isaac summoned him, he was full-on conspiracy rambling. “Look, I know you hate me for some reason, but I was thinking, I mean, researching you, and I found out way back when you first formed you had a triangle motif or something, right? And I thought hey, that’s weird, the demon that Dipper defeated was a triangle, so I mean if it’s not prying then-“

 

“Shut up,” Dipper snapped. Unbelievable. It was like watching a mirror. The kid was thirteen now, and he paced back and forth, and his voice cracked every other sentence. “Why have you summoned me again? I warned you to stay away.”

 

“Right, right! I just thought, um, you’re the only person who was alive back then, probably? So maybe you saw what happened!”

 

“Maybe,” Dipper said in a dangerously measured voice.

 

When he didn’t elaborate, Isaac only grew more determined. He talked quickly, like he was powering through his nervousness. “Why do you hate me? Is it because I’m Dipper? It’s because I’m Dipper, isn’t it? You called me Pine Tree, like Bill Cipher’s summoning circle, and I died to destroy you, and now we’re-“

 

It just so happened that Dipper kept interrupting Isaac. He looked calmly and cooly at the kid, and said “No.” 

 

The “no” set the carpet on fire, this time.

 

Isaac leapt away from the burning summoning circle, staring in awe at Dipper’s nigh-emotionless face.

 

“I am not Bill Cipher.” The words were soft-spoken, but carried an undertone that made every insect within a quarter-mile drop dead. Isaac rose into the air and let out a gasp, because his lungs didn’t have the air in them to scream.

 

“I would appreciate if you stopped mocking Dipper’s memory,” Dipper said carefully. The fire around him turned blue. “And I think it might also interest you to know that I know who were, and what side you were on in that fight.” He took the hat off of Isaac’s head, pointed at the eye symbol, and said in a voice several octaves deeper than usual, “You were Bill Cipher!”

 

The resonance of his words were a little more far-reaching than he’d intended. He might as well have shouted. 

 

The fire went out, and Isaac dropped to the floor, gasping for breath. He was staring at the baseball cap on the floor in front of him in growing horror.

 

“No,” he said at last.

 

Dipper smirked.

 

“No,” Isaac repeated, louder this time. “I’m not anything like Bill Cipher! I’m Dipper Pines! I’m the hero!”

 

Dipper laughed. “Sorry to break it to you, but you’re really not! Want me to tell you what your other reincarnations did? What I watched Bill Cipher do to my friends, and my family? Want me to list every person, place, and thing that Bill Cipher ruined? Because I remember every single one.”

 

Dipper’s grin spread across his face like a shark locating prey. “You are the reincarnation of an abomination, and I tried so hard not to tell you, but you wouldn’t shut up!”

 

“NO!” Isaac yelled, his face contorting. “He wasn’t even human! How could I be him?”

 

A wild glint grew in Dipper’s eyes. He held his cane with the bottom end resting in one hand like he was bouncing a baseball bat threateningly. “I can show you how!”

 

Isaac held his mysterious book up to his face protectively, flinching as Dipper shot towards him in a frenzy of demonic power, and Dipper remembered doing it, but he couldn’t _remember_ _why_.

 

The next moment, he was staring at a human child with one black eye. The eye was swollen, and a scratch ran from the tip of one eyebrow to the beginning of his cheekbone. He didn’t know what was happening, except that he had been  _ summoned _ and  _ chaos _ and-

 

He appeared in the middle of the forest, at the old tree he liked to stargaze in.

 

Isaac must have learned the incantation to un-summon him.

 

_ What happened? _

 

It wasn’t like he hated Bill’s reincarnations on principle. Toby had been a morally upright person, and the complete opposite of Bill Cipher in every way. It must have been the chaotic energy building up around Isaac’s emotional turmoil, overpowering his summoning circle, making him lose track of his common sense, blinding his human side, egging on old grudges and... 

 

Now that he’d done it, he knew. He just  _ knew _ that he’d never forgive himself. And that made him even angrier at Isaac, for provoking it. Why did he have to summon demons and effectively poke them with a stick? What was he, a Ford reincarnation?? No one else could be that stupid. 

 

Dipper had half a mind to go back to the house and burn it to the ground, erasing the evidence of how much Isaac had been able to get under his skin. But as the night went on, and he laid there alone, that side of him grew quieter and quieter, until finally he felt worthy of being the same being who once intended to sacrifice themselves if it meant stopping Bill Cipher. Even if he’d been mistaken for Bill under the absolute worst of circumstances.

 

He looked up at the stars, and tried to forget.


	2. Aftermath

Dipper knew more than anything that he'd have to make it up to the boy.

As much as he hated looking at the kid, he couldn't ignore regret when he felt it in his gut. He had to take every opportunity to exercise his human emotions, otherwise he'd only slip further into being the demon he'd accused a _child_ of being.

The thing was, deciding to do this was much easier than actually following through. Isaac hadn't summoned him a third time, and for that he was glad. But it meant he would need to muster up a physical form for this. He would need to walk in unannounced and uninvited, and hope that he still remembered how to give an apology.

If Bill Cipher was able to see this, he would be laughing his ass off. But there was no Bill Cipher anymore, not even in his reincarnations. All the malevolence and chaos of the original was as dead as the demon was. He would just have to accept it, and promise himself not to give in to the curiosity of seeing the next reincarnation get born, when the time came. Funny, he almost succeeded in letting go. But time and time again, Bill's reincarnations seemed to interfere in his life beyond what he'd expected.

No matter.

Dipper took a deep breath, willing himself into a physical form. It was a quiet night, and as he grew into a being of flesh and blood, he could smell fresh-cut grass and hot, wet sidewalks. The sprinklers were on at Isaac's house, watering the front lawn.

Dipper straightened his collar, and ran his tongue over his sharp teeth. Nothing he could do about _those_. With a sigh, he approached the front door, unlocking and opening it with a wave of his hand. 

The house was so quiet, he would've thought it empty if he didn't know any better. Walking purposefully down to the basement, Dipper smelled a faint hint of ash. There was a brand new carpet covering the floor already, but scorch marks remained at the edges of the room.

There was a deafening crash, and Dipper rushed forward, only to find Isaac trying to climb up the shelves of a closet from inside. He'd lost his grip and fallen to the floor.

"Would you like some assistance with that?" Dipper asked.

Isaac scrambled to his feet and spun around to face Dipper. He let out a tiny, breathless "eep!" froze, visibly trembling.

"Look," said Dipper, forcing himself to ignore the boy's insulting amount of terror. He willed his voice to become gentle. "I wasn't fair to you-"

Isaac leapt at Dipper and punched him solidly in the face. " _Get out of here!"_ he yelled. " _Get out! Get out! Get out!"_

Dipper took a few steps backwards, practically unharmed by the attack. "Hey, I'm offering you-"

Isaac's shouts for him to _get out_ were getting shriller and shriller, and they weren't stopping. Dipper felt taken aback, and a little hurt, but he hadn't brought his physical form for nothing. Perhaps he would have to resort to shouting over him. "I CAN TELL YOU ABOUT YOUR MORE RECENT REINCARNATIONS. GOOD, BRAVE PEOPLE."

Isaac's face was contorting into a blubbering mess, and suddenly it hit Dipper just how traumatized this kid was. Was he making things _worse_ by standing here, so soon after the summoning? Some of the bitterness buried within him was swept away by concern for the child. He wanted to comfort him, but he was the _cause_ of the discomfort. He wanted to sit this kid on his lap and tell him stories about the time one of his very own reincarnations defeated Bill Cipher when he was _inside of him_...

"get out, get out, get out," the kid was now saying emphatically, but hoarsely.

Dipper hated being on this side of things. The baseball cap wearing child was terrified of the yellow-eyed demon. Maybe... maybe if he took a less threatening position...

He sat down cross-legged on the brand new carpet and leaned backwards, resting his weight on his arms. "Did you even notice I have a physical form? Did you even notice I came here to apologize to you?"

Him sitting down seemed to calm Isaac down a little. He stopped repeating _get out_ , and opened his mouth to speak. Dipper wasn't sure whether the expression on the child's face was one of terror, or hatred, or both. The more his mouth hung open and the words forming in his head were held back, the more apprehensive Dipper grew about that child's expression.

"Apologize?!" Isaac stuttered out at last. " _Apologize?!_ " he flinched backwards, as if expecting Dipper to attack him, just for that. " _L-l-l-leave!_ Please, leave!"

Dipper left.

~

The hardest thing about an apology was when the person you apologized to wouldn't accept it. 

Dipper resolved to wait until the incident was less fresh in Isaac's mind, and then try again.

The next time he showed up, Isaac was fourteen, and Dipper simply materialized in his bedroom, instead of walking into the house unannounced. He gave the room a little sourceless wind to announce himself before appearing. It was only polite to give some forewarning.

Isaac was typing away at a laptop, sitting on a bean bag chair at the foot of his bed. When he glanced up and they met eyes, Dipper almost lost his resolve to apologize at all. Isaac's face had hardened in ways that no child, teenager or not, should have been able to pull off. There were faint bags under his eyes, and his frown looked less reactive and more casual, like this was his neutral face, now. He no longer wore a base ball cap, and his jacket had the symbol of a triangle with an eye in the center of it, instead of a pine tree. Most of all, he reeked of misery, so much that the very atmosphere of the room seemed to dampen, like Isaac was a black hole into which all positive feelings in the room vanished.

Or maybe Isaac was just unhappy to see him. Dipper hoped that was all. He was in a younger form than usual, more teenage than adult, in the hopes that it would keep Isaac from getting terrified again. But Isaac wasn't trembling this time. He wasn't shouting or backing away or even wearing a surprised expression. He simply surveyed Dipper with a look as cold and hard as ice. His one eye still had a thin scar from the diagonal scratch Dipper had given him, and the eye seemed to be unfocused. Was he blind in that eye?

Dipper cleared his throat. "I'm here to apologize."

Isaac smirked, but didn't say anything else. The subtle change in expression unsettled DIpper in ways that he couldn't quite name.

"I've been around for a very long time, and I've followed the reincarnations of many, both friend and foe. If you would like to hear about the deeds of reincarnations of your recent past, I would be happy to tell you about them."

Isaac didn't respond. His smirk had faded away, replaced by a deep frown. "Is that all?"

Dipper folded his arms. "Excuse me?"

"Is that _all_?" Isaac repeated, his voice sounding as bitter and broken as he looked. He didn't break eye contact with Dipper as he spoke. "I'm the reincarnation of a _demon,_ and you want to tell me _stories_?"

Rage. Alcor stopped himself, refusing to give himself any more reasons to feel guilty about Isaac. No more attacks. No more harsh words.

"Isaac," he said softly, walking towards the boy. "I'm sorry. I can heal that."

Before he could touch Isaac's eye, the boy lurched backwards, fear finally crossing his face.

Dipper backed away, holding his hands up defensively. Isaac glared at him, hatred building up on his face. "Why do you keep coming back?" he finally said, as if to himself. " _Why_? I-if you know what's good for you, you'll back off!" he raised his voice.

Dipper felt turmoil growing in his gut. Part of him wanted to respect the boy's wishes, but another part of him knew he'd never be satisfied until he'd given Isaac a proper apology. Something felt _off_ , here. Isaac wasn't the cheerful kid he was only a year ago. He _had_ to bring that back. He couldn't possibly live with himself if Isaac was scarred permanently by Dipper's demonic outburst.

Dipper took a deep breath, and began to tell Isaac about the heroic act of one of his reincarnations -- the one that fought a resurfacing Bill Cipher, long after everyone had thought him dead, even Dipper. He leaned absently on his cane as he began the story, keeping his distance from the boy.

His face finally twisting into outright anger, Isaac stood up. "F*** YOU!" He grabbed the nearest heavy object and moved his arm back threateningly into throwing-position. Dipper snapped his fingers and the object fell to the floor. Isaac stared at it, then back up at Dipper.

The look of terrible fury on Isaac's face at that moment was so powerful, even Dipper flinched. _I just made things worse again_ , Dipper sighed, before dissolving back into his non-corporeal form. He lingered for a moment. When he became invisible to Isaac, the kid's face tightened, and he dropped into his bean bag chair, fighting back angry tears.

At last, he muttered to himself, "I'm not Toby, or Ian...I'm not gonna just _ignore_ who I am!" He opened his laptop, smiling a smile that gave Dipper chills.

Dipper moved to get a better look at what Isaac was typing, and just about had a heart attack. The words he had typed into the search bar were "Cult of Bill Cipher".


	3. The Summoning Circle

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Warning! This chapter is rated Teen for gore/violence. It's your typical cult-sacrifices-someone-to-Alcor situation, complete with pissed-off-Alcor, and freaked-out-victims.

_Many Months Later_

  
The Cult of the All Seeing Eye could be seen walking as a group through tall grass, moving from a van with chipped paint towards a clearing in a field. Wooden benches lined the edge of the clearing, and an elevated concrete platform stood at the center, like a low, wide stage. The moon was nothing but a sliver in the midnight sky, so their flashlight beams cut through the darkness, bobbing up and down as they walked.  
  
There were only a dozen or so people in the group. Some wore long, flowing cloaks, while others wore whatever makeshift hoods they could find — everything from hoodies to ski masks.  
  
Isaac led the group, his heart pounding in his chest. He’d been given a proper cloak by one of the older members, and although he was by no means the tallest in the group, he stood up the straightest.  
  
When they arrived at the clearing, Isaac gestured for the others to shine their flashlight beams on the concrete platform. Those with lanterns set them down around Isaac, then backed away from him.  
  
Isaac rummaged in his pocket for the box of chalk, taking out one long, white stick, and began to draw the summoning circle.  
  
It had been difficult to find cult members. For one thing, everyone knew Bill Cipher was dead, and had been since the transcendence. For another thing, he didn’t exactly look the part. After he’d tattooed Bill’s symbolic, three-lashed eyes all over his fore-arms, it became a little easier. But even then, he’d only drawn the interest of… questionable people. People who scared him. People who were unstable enough to believe anything, and people who were so entrenched in cults that they were smart enough to believe anything. People who looked at everyone else with a gleam of bloodlust in their eyes. In short, people who were much more experienced and/or dangerous than him. But one had to form a cult somehow, so these were his people. His worshippers, and worshippers-to-be.    
  
This was the cult of the all-seeing eye, and he couldn’t ever show a shred of doubt or weakness, or his followers would surely rip him to shreds. But once he ascended back into a demon, followers like these would be exactly the kind of people he wanted. So he swallowed his fear, and pressed on.  
  
Isaac checked the diagrams printed on a piece of paper in his pocket, and kept drawing. Honestly, he wasn’t as scared as he should’ve been. In fact, he was more excited than anything else. They had prepared this for months. He’d had plenty of practice for this moment, and the more time he’d spent as a cult leader, the more the role seemed to suit him.  
  
A part of him loved the challenge of keeping his followers in check and believing in him. Of course, the most fun part had been researching how to make himself into a demon again. But once this goal was reached, he had a feeling he wouldn’t enjoy researching anymore. He would be nearly omniscient, after all.  
  
When the circle was finished, Isaac stood up, dusting chalk from his robes. He put away the chalk box, and raised his hands in the air. “It is finished!”  
  
In the back of the group, two of the cult members gripped two teenage boys, who were sitting crookedly at their feet. The cult members took smelling salts from their pockets, and woke the boys from their chemical-induced slumber.  
  
Adam woke up first. He came-to with a gasp of air, then immediately froze in fear, realizing exactly what he was in the middle of.  
  
Ethan came-to a moment later, and was slower to open his eyes. When he did, he tried to break free by jerking his hands in a single motion, but the cult member’s grip was firm.  
  
Isaac savored their looks of bewilderment, grinning maniacally when they locked eyes with him.  
  
He pushed off his hood, and Ethan gasped. “Isaac?!”  
  
These boys were responsible for almost every black eye he’d come home with after the incident with Alcor. When his parents came home to a house that smelled like fire, and a son who was blinded in one eye, he knew he couldn’t tell them what had really happened, so he’d blamed it on the vague excuse of “kids from school”.  
His parents had gone straight to the principal, and from there, his life had spiraled out of control. The school ran an entire month of anti-bullying assemblies, and word got out that it was because of Isaac. He’d tried to defend himself by telling them it was Alcor’s fault, but then they’d latched onto the theory that he was a Twin Pines fan.  
  
Ethan and Adam weren’t the worst of his bullies, but they were the most easily kidnapped. For so many years, the sight of them would turn Isaac in the opposite direction, hoping not to be noticed.  
  
Now, they were the ones cowering in fear.  
  
Isaac didn’t grace them with a speech. He didn’t say a single word. He merely reached out to point at one of them, pausing dramatically before aiming his finger at Ethan.  
  
The cult member dragged him forward, and the guy panicked. He screamed and cursed and thrashed, but the cult member only dragged him steadily towards the summoning circle.  
  
When they arrived at the platform, Ethan stared at Isaac, his expression slack with fear. “What are you doing to me? _What are you doing to me?!_ ”  
  
Isaac drew his knife.  
  
“No! Please, I’m sorry! Everything I did, I’m sorry, please, please, don’t-“  
  
Isaac held the knife up to his neck. Ethan squeezed his eyes shut, trying to lean away, but the cult member held his head firmly in place.  
  
Isaac could hear the guy’s ragged breath. It was like his body wanted to get a lifetime’s worth of heartbeats out within the next minute. Tears were forming at the corners of his eyes. Isaac had never seen him like this before. He was always so confident. So casually cruel, and calm. One of those people who smirks when something bad happens to someone else. But now, he was like a newborn baby, repeating the same few words over and over and over: “please don’t kill me”.  
  
Isaac realized he’d hesitated for far too long, but the pulsing heartbeat in Ethan’s neck was moving the knife ever so slightly, and if he let him go now then he’d have learned his lesson if this expression on his face was any indication-  
  
“My Lord,” whispered the cult member holding Ethan in place.  
  
Isaac’s own heart rate was rising rapidly. No, he couldn’t do this, he couldn’t stall for this long, but he couldn’t-  
  
“May I?” Asked the cult member, without a trace of judgement. Isaac felt sick to his stomach. _This is still murder. You’re still responsible for his murder. You could never be a demon. You can’t finish a single murder._  
  
“Yes,” Isaac spat, relieved that his voice hadn’t broken. The cult member didn’t hold their hand out for the knife, but instead placed their hand over Isaac’s — the one gripping the knife — and pressed the knife straight into Ethan’s neck, with Isaac’s hand still on the blade.  
  
Isaac tore his hand away from the cult member’s, feeling dizzy. It took every ounce of his willpower not to sink to his knees and lie in a fetal position until the staggering feeling of horror had passed. He didn’t want to look at what was happening just out of his line of sight, or hear any of the sounds of someone about to die.  
  
He glanced at the cult member, and they leered back at him. “Only the sharpest knives for my Master.”  
  
Isaac took several deep breaths, focusing on the words. The cult member. They had seen this. They’d seen a so-called demon freak out about killing a single soul.  
  
Isaac inhaled one more time, and hardened his face. “Move the body,” he ordered coldly, with only a little tremor in his voice. The cult member smirked at him briefly, before nodding. It was a good thing their robes were dark red. That was a good color to carry someone with a slit throat. Even if the blood didn’t wash out later, it would blend right in.  
  
_Focus. Alcor is about to appear. Alcor the Dreambender. The one who told you never to summon him again. Focus!_ Isaac watched the cult member drag Ethan’s limp body into the center of the summoning circle. As his blood touched the concrete, the chalk lines began to glow.  
  
Isaac was quite proud of his research,for this one. This summoning circle couldn’t be found in any textbooks or online diagram charts. In fact, it wasn’t really a summoning circle for Alcor. Not entirely. He’d designed it himself, although it was heavily inspired by descriptions of a summoning circle drawn by Alcor himself, or pieces of himself, rather. An event known as the Psychic Singularity had caused Alcor to draw a summoning circle for himself that was powerful enough to be binding.  
  
Isaac had spent a good few months in Gravity Falls, pretending to be a Pines, and digging as deeply as he could.  He’d learned quite a bit about Bill Cipher as well, and that was the trick. This circle was half Alcor’s, and half Bill Cipher’s.  
  
He really hoped this would work.  
  
With a blast of golden light, Alcor appeared inside the circle. “ _Who dares summon Alcor the Dreambender?_ ” He said in a voice so distorted, it made several people take a step back.  
  
_Now or never._ Isaac stepped forward, looking Alcor directly in the eyes. “You have offered to apologize in the past, and I’m finally ready to accept that apology.”  
  
Alcor licked his teeth, black-gold eyes glittering dangerously. “So you murdered a classmate.”  
  
Isaac’s blood grew, if possible, even more cold. “I want revenge,” he said in an oddly detached voice. “I want you to possess me, so that I can destroy every single person who made my life miserable after…” he touched his blind, scarred eye.  
  
Alcor laughed “A willing puppet?” The hungry look in his eyes almost made Isaac reconsider.  
  
Isaac steeled himself. “Let me specify the terms.”  
  
He laid them out, stuttering only once.  
  
Alcor blinked in surprise. Then a horrible grin crept up his face, stretching from ear to ear. He shot forward, holding out his hand.  
  
_Bonk._  
  
“What the-?” Alcor rubbed his face, staring all around himself at the binding.  
  
“Hm.” The demon looked down, examining the summoning circle briefly. “This circle isn’t very accurate. Then how….”  
  
He swiped at the binding, and it didn’t budge. He summoned his cane, prodding at it. It still didn’t budge.  
  
Alcor backed away from the edge of the binding, bewildered. “Your deal is so transparent… so t̢̬͇̯̠̖e̖m͏̟͈p̞t̹͔̪͝i̲ng͎̠̭͔… so e̶̷͏̮̩̗̫̭x͔̣͖̻̘̻̜̘͠p̺̺͓l̤̗̜̜̮o͏̡̯̞͖͇͖̕ͅḭ̼̲͇̳͍̺̥ͅt͏̯̳͚a͕̫͓̩̥͉ḅ͉̹͇̼ͅļ̕҉̩̟̮̫̞̹̥͙ẹ̝̖̪̹̀ ̗̞̜̭̻̣̀ ̋̀͊̏̎̀…”  
  
Looking down at the chalk circle, he snarled. “THIS! Where did you find this!” He tapped his cane against a section of the summoning circle. “No one has seen that since the Singularity!”  
  
Baring his teeth, Alcor lunged at Isaac — but was securely trapped within the circle. “There’s n̨͖̖o̰̰͓͚ ͕̠d̵̖͉e͕̮̬̣̜a̼̻̬͕̭̖͟l̗̙̯̲!  Break this binding, and I’ll show you what it means to h̘̺̼ṵ͍̳r̪̱̪̩̦t͍̤͎̗̲!“  
  
Isaac’s face went slack. “No deal?! But how could you refuse it? It’s stacked in your favor! Just because I did my research-!”  
  
“NO DEAL!” Alcor repeated, fists clenched tightly. “But if you’re really so desperate, then try this on for size: free me from this ridiculous binding, and I’ll give you a knuckle sandwich, l̻̣̱͈̃i̯̬͖̠̙̅͑͂t̰̱̳͔͇̘̜͛t͍̤̩̯̥̓͋l̜̻̳̺̘ͫ̃e̬̍̏̒̐̚ ̞ b̟̩̰̹̹ö̰͔̘y̦̭ͩ̈. I’ll break free from this soon, and then what?”  
  
The cult members shifted uncomfortably. Or at least, the currently tied-up Adam let out a tiny “eep”.  
  
Isaac crossed his arms defensively. “What’s wrong with my deal? It was full of loopholes! What kind of demon are you?”  
  
Alcor narrowed his eyes, sparks flying from his fingers as he pressed them firmly against the binding. “You’re a smart boy, Isaac. Why don’t _you_ figure out why I’m wary of taking a deal only a half-wit would offer. But before I break free, why don’t I offer you a deal.”  
  
Isaac waited, listening. He’d spent so long engrossed in books about demonology, he was certain he’d be able to see through any tricks or traps in Alcor’s proposal.  
  
“When I break free, I will spare your life, in exchange for your s̵͔̮̟̞̩̝ͪ͑̓ͨ̐̐̚o̻̺̻ ǘ̹̲͎̅̒̒̅̀̉ľ̠̼ͤͦ̽̚͢.”  
  
The binding was already beginning to glow with destructive energy. It wouldn’t last much longer.  Isaac’s heart wasn’t even beating anymore, it had metaphorically flown out of his body and was being pummeled by a jackhammer. His soul? Would it matter? Would this screw up his plans? He needed to get Alcor inside of him, but there was no guarantee he’d do it immediately after he owned Isaac’s soul… his soul… the first rule of everyone and everything was never sell your soul, no matter what, don’t even consider it… but oh god, the binding was gonna break…  
  
This was ridiculous. Why would Alcor want his soul? He was _Bill Cipher,_ for crying out loud. Didn’t Dipper hate the guy? Wouldn’t he not want to touch such a soul with so much as a ten foot pole?  
  
Isaac steadied his voice as best he could, then said, “In case you’ve forgotten, I’m Bill Cipher! What would you even do with my soul?”  
  
Alcor stopped breaking the binding for a moment, looking at Isaac like someone who had just been delivered a pizza without having ordered one. “ _You_ think _you’re_ Bill Cipher?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Cliffhanger! I'm still working on chapter 4. This'll either have 4 or 5 chapters total, depending on how things work out.


	4. Secrets

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning! There's a brief suicide implication, and sort-of graphic descriptions of violence.

“What the f***?!” Isaac said so tightly that his voice cracked. “You’re the one who wouldn’t shut about it! You’re the one who blinded me in my f***ing _eye_ because you were so hell-bent on telling me I’m Bill Cipher the Dream Demon!!”  
  
Alcor pursed his lips. “Hmm… no, that doesn’t ring a bell.”  
  
The wind howled, blowing Isaac’s hood and cape around in the breeze. Other than that, you could’ve heard a pin drop. Isaac ventured a glance at his cult. They looked… pissed.  
  
Turning back to Alcor, Isaac trembled with fury of his own. “You liar! Tell them I’m Bill Cipher! Tell them!!”  
  
“Or what?” Alcor gloated. “You’ll face mutiny? Get your head chopped off, perhaps? Or will they sacrifice you t͉͈̰̦o̺̖͟ ͈̻̬̖̬̘̗m͕̙͎̠̻͙̲e?”  
  
Isaac turned on his heels rapidly, already feeling them closing in. He ran full-speed towards Adam, hoping and praying that he could drag him into the summoning circle in time to sacrifice him, to keep the binding secure, to buy him more time…  
  
Rough hands seized him by the arms, legs, torso, and neck. Too many to count. Too many to struggle against, although he tried his damnedest. Too many for him to do anything other than let hot, angry tears roll down his face.  
  
“You’re sacrificing your own god!” He screamed.  
  
“Look like a lil’ kid to me,” leered the same follower who’d helped him kill Ethan.  
  
“When I rise, you’ll be sorry!” Isaac shouted, but they were laughing, and it was useless, and all too quickly he was thrown into the summoning circle…  
  
Alcor surged into him. He felt it like a violating force, and he knew what Alcor was trying to do. He was trying to possess him against his will. Demons rarely were able to succeed at this, and hardly any of them ever bothered to try, but this time, Isaac allowed it. He let Alcor in without a fight.  
  
The demon was halfway into him when he plunged his hand into his pocket, searching for the vial of holy water he’d saved exactly for this occasion. His limbs were starting to tingle, and now he fought to maintain control, and to keep his soul at least partially in his body, so that he could raise the holy water to his lips…  
  
Alcor tried to flee his body, but he was too fast. The water poured down his throat, and he felt a burning sensation like knives to the stomach. Isaac doubled over in pain, seeing white flashes in his vision. He was screaming — no, _Alcor_ was screaming — and then everything went black.  
  
~  
  
When he woke up, he heard voices. A million similar-sounding voices, struggling to stay together. _Kill them! Eat him! Where’s Mizar? Save the kids! Keep it together! Screw this!_

_Hello?_   Isaac said, although without his mouth. It was more of a thought-to-himself, that he shared with… something else.  
  
The voices grew louder and sharper. Then they died down, and a single voice replied, which he recognized as Alcor. “You think you want this?!”  
  
_Want to be Bill Cipher again? Yeah._  
  
“idiot! You wouldn’t even be Bill Cipher. You’d look more like me than anything else.”  
  
_Better than my soul being devoured by you._  
  
“This isn’t going to work. It takes more than a little holy water to destroy me, you know.”  
  
Isaac didn’t know what to say. _But then, what happens now? What’s even happening?_  
  
“I’m inside of you. It took guts to get me like this, I’ll grant you. But if you ever do it again, I will not hesitate to wipe you off of the face of the earth.”  
  
Isaac strained his… whatever it was. His soul, perhaps? And felt a white-hot pain shoot through his chest. Distantly, as if through water clogged ears, he heard gasps and mutters.  
  
“I should kill you for this.”  
  
_Why wouldn- uh, I mean, really?_  
  
“I’m still deciding. You’re dangerous, stupid, and stubborn. But you’ve been working on false assumptions.”  
  
Isaac felt a twist in his gut. _So I’m not really Bill._  
  
“Oh, you definitely are. You’re just too stupid to realize how much of a mistake this is. I’ve never told anyone about this before, but you need to know. For… purposes.”  
  
Isaac stayed quiet.  
  
“This situation…. I’ve been in something like it before. Except I was on the other end of things. Back at the Transcendence, when… when Bill Cipher was defeated, he possessed me, right before he died. The residue of his demonic energy transformed me into this. Before that…” Alcor hesitated. “Before that, I was Dipper Pines.”  
  
Isaac’s brain was in free fall. _You?_  
  
Alcor laughed without humor. “I hated Bill Cipher’s guts, and even now, I’m terrified that he’ll come back and destroy my family all over again. Even though I don’t have one. You can imagine what I felt like, when I realized… I was a demon, like him.”  
  
Isaac still couldn’t wrap his head around it, so he stayed silent.  
  
Alcor sighed. “I know you aren’t inherently evil, but it’s so hard not to flinch when the thing that turned you into a monster is standing right in front of you, living the one kind of life that you can’t have.”  
  
It finally sank in. _You used to be human?!?!_  
  
_So that’s why your physical form-_  
_Your compassion-_  
_!!!!!_  
  
Isaac’s next thought was, _so this power-stealing thing might actually work._  
  
“Nope,” Alcor interjected. “I’ve told you all my secrets, so now I definitely have to kill you.”  
  
Isaac’s thought process skidded to a halt. _No! Please! I- I’ll make a deal with you! I’ll sell you my soul! I’ll swear to never tell a soul about this!!_  
  
The last thing Isaac heard in the back of his head before he woke up again was Alcor quickly saying, “d̵̖͉e͕̮̬̣̜a̼̻̬͕̭̖͟l̗̙̯̲͙̲͡ͅ.”  
  
With a feeling like his soul was flying out of his body, Isaac sat up. He was lying in the middle of Alcor’s summoning circle, uncomfortably close to Ethan’s corpse. The cult members were muttering in nervous confusion to each other, but everyone went quiet when Isaac woke up.  
  
“Alcor the Dreambender?” Said one of them questioningly, avoiding Isaac’s eyes.  
  
“Nope, but nice guess!” Said Alcor,  appearing beside Isaac and summoning his cane. “This should be weak enough by now…”  
  
With a quick jab, the binding burst like a soap bubble. Alcor grinned. “Much better!”  
  
“Now,” he said, surveying the cult members coldly. “By show of hands, who joined this kid’s cult because they actually thought he was Bill Cipher?”  
  
No one moved or spoke. In fact, they seemed to be paralyzed with fear.  
  
“Tsk tsk, I see. And who joined this kid’s cult with the end goal of killing him?”  
  
Nobody moved.  
  
Alcor rolled his eyes. “Normally I would start by tearing your leader limb from limb, but we reached a better arrangement.” He leaned backwards, floating in mid-air. “Besides, he’s, what, _twelve_? And I _do_ tend to be more lenient with kids.”  
  
One of the cult members twitched into action. Alcor pointed a finger at them, and they froze by no means of their own, stopped before they could even make the first step.  
  
Alcor sat up, eyes glowing more brightly, as his sarcastic smirk dissolved into a scowl. “T͕̤̭̩ͅͅh͖e͇̫r̤͇e̺̫̝͙ ͍̞̻̠i̱̥̯̺͔͎͉s͙͕͍̞̞ ̩̜̰̣̺a̖̳͙ ̘͚̩̙̣̫͚de͓̘̯̝ad̜͓ ͕͔͎̫ch̬͕͈͎̖͕i̤l͙̝͙̫̠̥̟d̰̳̲͉̱͔ ̹͍̮̻y̱̣̳i̗n͉̼͖̱g h̻̭e͕̞̖̙̘͔rḛ̜,̺̪ a̩̪̲͍̖ṋ̖͇d ͇̝̹͈͎̩a͇̻n̬̤̣͎͉̻o̱̥͖̤̞͎̘t̼͉͈̺ẖ̳̖e̺r̭̻̗̗͎̖ ̫̥̠̦two̞̠ w̦̻ẖ̟̗̝o͎͔ ̞w͚̙e̖̲̜̪͈̼r̻̹̘e ͅa͍͍̮̼l̫̗̞̦m͍o̥s͙̮t͎̖̲̘͖̪ ̲̟̩̝̟ḵi̼̙̫̼̙l̯̭̲l͙͓͉̝e͖̞̣d̠̠̳̣̰ ̱̪̪̯b͖y̞̩̩͔̺̥̝ ͕͔y͍̲o̺u̮͕̼̩ͅͅr͉ ̮̳̰͎̥͖̫bl̩̲̦o̯̠̪̦̣͙o̺͈d ̜̼͓̝th̗̪̯̻͈i͍̼r̯͍͕̮͎s͔̻̲̜͓͔t͓̹͓̭.”  
  
Screams rang out as he twirled his fingers, and their skin separated from their bodies like peeled grapes.  
  
“N̯̣̞̤͎̩e̛x̲̼t̰̫̳͍̫ ̱̼̤̞̬̯̕t͉͔̥̦͟i͈̘̤̩̙̤̣m̫̲̥̘̗̝͉e,̟̫̗͚ ̝̲̯̫́ḻ̩͇̝͈e̮͔͔̣̲a͠v͓̬e̴̱̻̝ ͞t͎̲̣̖̯̭h҉͍͖͕̖͖̘̫e̻̝̘̘̣ͅ ̤͇͎́b̶͚͎l̹̥̦̲̪̫̕ͅo̭̼͈̼̭͈ͅod ̼̼̝̜̦͠t̤͈͇̦̹͝h̸̻ir͓̮s̸̬̤t̴̬͎͚̯ ̗̀t̨̯o̝ ̭̕ț͍͔͈̞he̷͙̜̖͎̦͉̠ ̪̲̞͓͔̘d̘͞e̘m̭̘͓̠̘o̬̙̦͟ͅn̳̣̬͙s̳̱̗̰͙!̝̼̬̞”  
  
He leapt at them, and Isaac covered his eyes, stomach churning violently.  
  
After several minutes of what felt like an eternity, in which Isaac fell to his knees and wanted to scream, but kept silent out of sheer terror that Alcor would hear and turn on him in a blind frenzy.  
  
It was Adam — poor Adam, tied up and unable to cover his eyes — who spoke first. “Please, stop!”  
  
Alcor paused, and the terrible sounds stopped.  
  
Isaac dared to peek, and saw Alcor briefly covered in blood, before he straightened his bow tie and his clothes became magically clean again. Seeing the carnage around the demon brought another wave of nausea to him, and he covered his eyes again.  
  
He could distantly hear Adam and Alcor talking.  
  
Then, suddenly, his limbs were moving of their own accord. His hands fell away from his body, and his wide—open eyes looked back and forth at the bloody scene.  
  
“This could have been you,” said Alcor through Isaac’s mouth.  
  
Isaac’s heart leapt into his throat. _Get out of me!_ He pleaded.  
  
Alcor stretched Isaac’s limbs, like he was testing them out. “No take backs! I own your soul, and I feel like going on a stroll tonight.”  
  
Isaac wanted desperately to turn away, but he literally couldn’t. It was worse whenever he recognized the remains of a face, because then the carnage had a name.  
  
When he walked past Adam, he saw that he’d been untied. He wanted to apologize, but his mouth wouldn’t obey him.  
  
“Isaac wants to apologize,” Alcor said through him.  
  
Adam’s mouth moved open and shut, but he didn’t make a single sound.  
  
“You can run! I won’t hurt ya,” said Alcor through Isaac’s voice.  
  
Adam promptly took off, backing away slowly at first, then sprinting like a gazelle. Did he even know where he was going?  
  
“You see, Isaac, I should really kill you. You’re as responsible for all this as any of them. But if you die, you’ll just reincarnate as some other snotty kid.”  
  
As he said it, Alcor put Isaac’s hands on his neck, as if to strangle himself.  
  
“And… even though you’re all out of chances, I really want to see the look on your face when you find out what happens when you try to tell someone my secret.”  
  
It was bizarre to hear his own voice and know it wasn’t his own. Isaac didn’t know what to say, even if he did have control over his mouth. He was too apprehensive about the whole sold-my-soul-to-a-demon thing.  
  
Alcor made Isaac’s body punch himself in the face. “That will have to do, for now. Have fun getting home!”  
  
With a rush of sensation, Isaac regained control of his body. _Ow._ He could really pack a punch… and Alcor was nowhere to be found.  
  
Isaac rushed away from the bodies, praying that he could figure out how to drive the van. what, exactly, had just happened was beyond him. He didn’t want to think about it. He didn’t ever want to think about it. And he definitely didn’t want to think about it until he’d gotten himself safely home,  with all the blood and bruises cleaned up enough for nobody to ask prying questions.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> One more chapter is coming up!


	5. Epilogue

_Months Later_  
  
The classroom stank like sweat. School was almost out for the Summer, and although Isaac had done plenty worthy of expulsion, he was, by some horrible miracle, still stuck in class.  
Maybe it was the fact that he hadn’t been caught. Or the fact that Adam had refused to talk about the incident, going as far as to change schools rather than see Isaac every day.  
  
Whatever had happened, he had to admit he was relieved. Things _never_ worked out in his favor. Why _this_ , of all things, would turn out relatively fine was beyond him.  
  
The teacher was droning on about U.S. history. He pointed at a map, finger landing on Oregon. Isaac perked up, remembering his trip to Oregon almost a year ago, back when he was hell bent on wiping Alcor off the face of the Earth.  
  
“Who can tell me the name of the child that defeated Bill Cipher, bringing about the Transcendence?”  
  
Everyone knew the answer. It had only been taught a million times since they’d started school. But no one had the energy to raise their hand, let alone speak.  
  
After a prolonged silence, the teacher sighed. “…Isaac? Do you remember?”  
  
Isaac sat up straighter, internally groaning. “Uh, could you repeat the question?”   
  
He’d been thinking about a really catchy song that had been stuck in his head lately. He couldn’t remember where he’d heard it.  
  
“-bringing about the Transcendence?” The teacher finished.  
  
Isaac’s mouth fell open slightly. He hadn’t heard him the second time, either. Was he really that apathetic?  
  
“Um…” he wracked his brains, comparing things he knew about the Transcendence that might relate to the question. “…the weirdness bubbles?”  
  
The class snickered.  
  
The teacher didn’t even acknowledge the answer. Instead, they turned to another student. “Abigail, can you answer the question?”  
  
“Very good,” said the teacher after a pause.  
  
Isaac frowned. Hold on. She hadn’t answered the question. What were they playing at?  
  
“-Isaac?”  
  
“Huh?” He must have spaced out again.  
  
After another oddly jarring pause, he heard the teacher sigh even more deeply, moving on with his lesson.  
  
Not once did it cross Isaac’s mind that his memories could’ve been altered by Alcor. And not once did Alcor’s true name, Dipper Pines, get anywhere near being remembered. Instead, he puzzled over the lyrics that were stuck in his head like he’d known them for centuries: _disco girl, coming through, that girl is you._  
  
~  
  
Alcor had mixed feelings about the arrangement.  
  
On the one hand, he had Isaac’s soul. This was a totally adequate punishment. On the other hand, however, he couldn’t just let an ex-cult-leader and one-time-murderer _live_ his _life._  
  
He could have screwed Isaac’s life up beyond repair, if he’d wanted to. He could have reported Isaac to the police. He could’ve haunted Adam’s dreams until he was forced to rat out Isaac. He could’ve gotten Isaac expelled. He could’ve possessed him while he was at home, scaring his parents so badly that they would never recover. But he hadn’t.  
  
He told himself that it was because Isaac in jail would be a waste of a perfectly good flesh puppet. Except here he was, watching Isaac from the dreamscape, as he walked out of class.  
  
The kid looked mildly less miserable than the last time he’d seen him. His face was less sunken, and his skin had a healthier sheen. But his eyes were still so hard and cold that most of the kids stayed far out of his path.  
  
One of the taller, broader kids in his class bumped into him from behind. Isaac ignored him, but the kid had clearly meant to start a fight.   
  
“What’s your problem, huh? You- _GAH!_ ”  
  
~  
  
Isaac figured he’d get a hard time for making a fool of himself in class. When Brian bumped into him, he was about to walk faster to avoid the guy, but — _oh no_ — he felt his soul leave his body, and suddenly he couldn’t move his limbs, or blink, or breathe.  
  
He felt his neck turn sharply, and his lips curve into an uncharacteristically wide grin. He wasn’t sure what _he_ looked like, but he could see Brian’s reaction. _Sh**_. Would he realize this was Alcor? Would he report him to the principal?  
  
“Hahaha, that’s right! Run, you coward!” Said Alcor through Isaac’s mouth.  
  
Then he felt a pressure in his chest, and he was back in his own body. His expression slipped back into its usual apathetic glare, but he was panicking inside. _Who else saw that? Where is Brian running? I am so screwed._  
  
Looking around quickly, he realized that only two others had seen his moment of possession.  
  
One of them — a girl — raised an eyebrow. “Your eyes went black for a second.”  
  
Isaac felt a lump in his throat. “Uh… eye contacts… hah. Yeah.”  
  
She smiled politely at him. “Funny trick.” Then she kept walking with the rest of the students in the hallway.  
  
The other one looked too petrified to move, let alone speak.  
  
“Hey-“ Isaac said carefully, taking a step towards them. “It’s fine.”  
  
They flinched. Then took a deep breath. Then gave Isaac a tight smile. “I must’ve been imagining things. Sorry, I dunno what I was thinking.”  
  
Then they rushed away, dissolving into the crowd.  
  
Isaac bit his lip. That had been… unexpected.  
  
For the rest of the school year, his bullying problems mysteriously disappeared.  
  
~  
  
 _Years Later_  
  
Isaac hadn’t chosen his major yet. He knew he wanted to do something involving research, but in what field? Demonology? Magical history? Biochemistry? There were too many choices. And he had finals to worry about. And he wasn’t doing anything productive about either of those things.  
  
He was sitting on the couch in the basement of a shared condo, with the door locked and at least fifteen different movies lined up for the night. It was a mix of his favorites, and really really old movies that couldn’t have been found through any legitimate source.   
  
He opened a bag of gross, dried-up gummy worms, and Alcor appeared, sitting down beside him. “Let’s watch Ducktective first.”  
  
Isaac groaned. “I looked at the cover! That’s at least a zillion years old! You know when something’s so out of context, culturally, that every single joke has to be explained to you? _That’s_ what you’ll be dealing with.”  
  
“I’ll explain everything to you,” Alcor said dismissively. “It’s not that difficult.”  
  
The movie lifted itself off the shelf and slid into the TV.   
  
Isaac slumped into the couch, sighing dramatically. “Okay, but I get to pick the next one, because I gave you those gummi worms!”  
  
Alcor rolled his eyes, crumpling up the now empty gummy worm bag. “Ifh you inshisht,” he said through a full mouth.  
  
“Honestly, I don’t know how you haven’t gotten me expelled yet,” Isaac muttered.  
  
Alcor grinned at him. “That would be no fun!”  
  
The title screen showed up, and Isaac pressed play. “I almost wish you’d possess me during my finals. There’s no way I’m gonna pass Transcendence History. I keep spacing out, for some reason.”  
  
Alcor vanished, then reappeared with a pan of brownies in one hand. “That would get you expelled for sure!”  
  
“Not if I wore sunglasses.”  
  
“Haha! Well I wouldn’t know the answers anyway. I’d just write down what actually happened.”  
  
Isaac sighed. “Right. So, did ducks have the power of speech back then?”  
  
“No! It’s called using your imagination.”  
  
The duck on the screen was walking into a police building with a weary expression.   
  
“This looks like a kids show,” Isaac said after a pause.  
  
Alcor crossed his arms defensively. “It has good character arcs!”  
  
“Uh-huh.”  Isaac said skeptically. But they could both hear the smile in his voice.  
  
The thing about Alcor was, he’d traumatized Isaac early in his life. And Isaac had done unforgivable things not long after that. So at first — after he’d sold his soul, that is — he’d expected to live no longer than a couple days. But after school had gotten out for the Summer in his freshman year of high school, Alcor had started appearing in his dreams. Isaac had been terrified at first, until he realized that every time Alcor appeared, he told stories.   
  
Isaac hadn’t known whether to believe them or not, but there was nothing bad about the stories. In fact, he’d been secretly thrilled to hear the true stories of Dipper Pines’s life (until he woke up and forgot the name). And he’d been interested in Alcor’s life, too. He couldn’t fathom why a powerful demon that owned his soul was simply showing up to tell stories, until a couple months later, when he realized that he recognized the look on Alcor’s face. He was… lonely.  
  
And he hated to admit it, but Isaac was lonely too. He wasn’t exactly popular in school, and he was always getting in trouble in History class for slacking off and “refusing to answer obvious questions”.  
  
He wasn’t sure why Alcor hadn’t devoured his soul yet, but after five-ish years, they couldn’t _not_ trust each other, at least a little bit. At least enough to have movie nights and complain about each others’ taste in movies. At least enough for Isaac to call Alcor’s name after a long day at work, bursting to tell him about the latest dumb thing his coworker did.  
  
He’d never imagined, way back when he was working through the trauma of Alcor scarring his face, that one day he might look at Alcor without wanting to flee in terror. Nor that he might, in some sense, be able to call Alcor the Dreambender his _friend_.  
  
And between you and me, dear reader? Alcor never expected anything like this, either. He knew he needed an anchor — someone to talk to and get things off his chest with so they didn’t explode within him — but he never expected a reincarnation of Bill Cipher to be that person. Maybe it was because they were both irredeemably f***ed up. Or maybe it was because Isaac was similar to Dipper, in some ways. But he didn’t really care about the whys, anymore. He was just happy that for another 80-ish years, he’d have a human to talk to again.  
  
Now, when he stared up at the stars at night, he didn’t think about how nobody knew what it was like before the Transcendence. Because Isaac, in some small way, knew. And that was enough.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> That's the end, folks! Let me know what you think. Disappointing ending? Should Isaac's soul have been devoured? Or was it just right?


End file.
